


Let Me Under Your Skin

by HuntingHardyGirl



Series: The Taylor Borelli Series [4]
Category: Hardy Boys - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Friends With Benefits, Love Confessions, Marijuana, Nudity, Sexual Themes, implied sex, pot smoking, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 14:45:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13929264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HuntingHardyGirl/pseuds/HuntingHardyGirl
Summary: Frank Hardy and Taylor Borelli have had a friends with benefits relationship for well over a year, and it's about time they talk to each other to find out exactly where they stand





	Let Me Under Your Skin

Taylor had contented herself that she wasn’t normally anyone’s “first choice”. The last semi serious relationship she had was with some girl in one of her old foster care homes. But then they had a fight and the girl dumped her, resulting in Taylor running away and being found, only to be sent to a different house.

Living in Bayport, being a detective with the Hardys, it wasn’t really any different. She was a fun lay in bed every once in a while, but she didn’t have Joe’s reputation. She was fun to flirt with, but rarely was ever asked out on a real date. After her upbringing, she hardly found it upsetting. Just a bit wistful, watching her friends fall in love with others, wondering what it would be like to attach to someone like that.

Until it happened with Frank.

Taylor could understand why people, girls especially, fell so hard for Frank. He was a kind and generous soul, always willing to help people out. He was incredibly smart, passing through school with almost enviable ease. And sure, he was good looking, with his black hair and startling grey eyes, and fuck, whenever he’d smile, he had these small dimples in his cheeks, and she wondered, many times, what it would feel like to kiss those lips, to taste his skin on her tongue.

And one day, she didn’t have to wonder anymore. One day, she took the reigns and she showed him a good time. It always astounded her, that she would be the one he trusted that much. That she would be the one who would take his virginity. It kind of felt like a badge of honor, but something they both kept between them. A little secret, something they shared, something they could enjoy. And as time passed, she got to teach him more things, and while they didn’t become exclusive, she found herself becoming addicted to him. Addicted to his smile, how warm his body was against hers, the scars on his skin that littered his body that her fingers could find. Addicted to the taste of his mouth, the scent of his hair, the sounds that would escape him whenever they’d do something particularly fun, the blush on his cheeks after a good vigorous roll around in his bed.

 _This was dangerous,_ she decided.

 _This needed to end,_ she tried to tell herself.

 _Just one more taste,_ another part of her would coax.

It was driving her crazy. But was it really so bad?

One night, they had the house to themselves. Fenton and Laura were out on a “romantic weekend” and Trudy was out with some of her friends. Joe had gone out with the gang, calling for them not to wait up, and so Taylor wasted no time pulling out her bright pink bong from under her bed, and Frank just smiled, pulling up Netflix on his laptop.

The room was smoky, making everything nice and hazy. Even after they had gotten bored with _Parks and Recreation_ and fooled around, Taylor felt pleasantly tingly and happy. Laying over Frank’s chest, she traced one of the scars on his shoulder, one she had bore witness to when a smuggler had shot him right in the collarbone.

“Can I ask you something?” Frank asked, absentmindedly twisting a strand of her hair into a braid.

“What’s up Frankenstein?” she murmured, glancing up at him.

“I wanted to ask…about _this_.” He looked back at her, and despite how large his pupils were under the effects of the pot, he still looked level headed. “About us.”

She raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…we’ve been doing this for almost a year now,” he said. “And I know you said there didn’t have to be strings attached, but…”

There was a moment of silence before Taylor sat up, hands against his chest, and even in the slight mood change, she still saw how he looked at her. The awe in his eyes, like he could never believe he ever got to see her like this, naked and confident. Made her feel like a damned goddess.

“Do you wanna stop fooling around?” she asked, tilting her head a bit.

“No,” he said, sounding sincere. “But… Well, there’s a reason people normally advise against friends with benefits arrangements. You said itself that…that first time. Sometimes people end up feeling differently about it.”

“Are there others?” Taylor asked curiously. She wasn’t normally a jealous type of person, and while she didn’t fault Frank for wanting more, she felt a slight jab in her gut. Something sharp and blunt, something she didn’t like.

“No, of course not. I…” He sighed then, shifting himself to sit up, and Taylor slid off of him to give him more room. “Taylor, you’re pretty much the only person I’ve ever had sex with.”

“Sucks for you,” she replied, going for a teasing moment.

“I disagree.” He looked at her then, the expression on his face making him look like he was trying to choose his words carefully. “I… I wanted to ask if…if it was possible this might evolve into something past ‘friends with benefits’?”

“What do you mean?”

“…Like a…r-relationship?”

Taylor blinked, feeling like her brain had glitched out on her. Frank did not just say that, he didn’t suggest something like that to her did he? Maybe it was the pot, maybe he smoked too much…

“Did you slip something in my pot, dude?” she asked, grabbing her bong and giving it a little shake, the water sloshing about.

“No.” He reached out then, fingers closing on her wrist to make her stop moving. “Taylor, please, I’m trying to talk seriously here.”

“We’re high, there’s no need to be serious.”

“There is, because it’s important.” Frank looked intense then, and she felt herself becoming still under his gaze. “Taylor, I care about you. A lot. Way more than I do a friend or a sibling. I feel that I’ve developed feelings for you, and I want to know if you feel the same way or if I’m going to waste my time.”

A nervous giggle erupted from her. “What the fuck?”

“What?” Now he just looked irritated. “This isn’t funny.”

“I think it’s hysterical.”

“Why on earth–”

“You could do way better than me, Frank.”

The slip of the tongue was not what she meant to say, but it was said, and it felt like it was floating above their heads, just out of sight but repeating on a constant loop.

“What makes you think that?” he asked, his voice quiet.

“Are you seriously asking me that?” she shot back. “Fuck, Frank, look at you. Too damn pretty for this world, people just begging to get a shot with you. You come from a good home, you’ve got great grades, got a good future, and me? I got none of those things.”

“Taylor–”

“I’m nobody.” A muscle twitched in her jaw and she laughed again, though there was no humor in the sound. “I came from nothing. I have nothing to offer you, nothing that you could want.”

“I want _you_.”

“But with Callie and Nancy–”

“Callie and I drifted apart, and Nancy is with Ned. There’s no one else in this world that makes me feel the way you make me feel.” He pulled her close then, grey eyes much sharper despite the haze of the smoke still lingering in the bedroom. “You drive me insane, even on a good day. You’re wild and unpredictable and violent and you chase adrenaline like nothing else and I’m convinced that someday you’re gonna drive me into an early grave, but I don’t care because every time we’re together I’ve never felt more alive.”

“That’s the pot talking.”

“Taylor, for god’s sake, please.”

She fell silent then.

Frank took a deep breath before he trudged on, as if every word was something he was trying to get out before he lost his nerve. “I love you. Okay? Maybe you don’t wanna hear it, and I may never know for sure why, but this isn’t foster care. This isn’t a survival thing you need to put your walls up for. I love you. You mean everything to me, and it kind of scares me, because I’ve never loved anyone like this. Not Callie, not Nancy, not Holly, not Riley, not anyone. Just you. Always you. Violent, loud, brash, wild and unpredictable you. Being with you brings out something in me I never knew I had. I want to be with you. I wanna hold your hand and kiss you in public. I want to take you out on dates. I want to see you wearing my t-shirts and jackets, I want to call you mine. And if that’s not what you want, just tell me, and I promise we can stop all of this and pretend like it never happened.”

The long pause that followed his words felt like hours. Taylor could barely hear the _Parks and Recreation_ episode in the background, her own pounding heart much too loud in her ears, the dizziness that started creeping up on her. She blinked, and she was startled when he reached up, thumb brushing aside a tear she hadn’t even realized was falling.

This was why Taylor normally avoided such situations. Maybe the fact that she was always single hadn’t been entirely on the shoulders of others. She did tend to push people away when it became too much for her to handle or think about, and the fact that she didn’t do that with Frank was very telling. Or maybe she had tried once or twice, and Frank had remained anyway. Joe wasn’t the only Hardy who had a fierce stubbornness streak a mile long.

“You could do better than me,” she said, her voice shaking.

“Doubt it.” He smiled then, one corner of his mouth quirking up.

“I got a lot of baggage.”

“You’ve helped me with mine.”

“I’m a difficult person, y’know.”

“Taylor, we’ve lived under the same roof for three years now. I’m pretty confident that after all this time, nothing is gonna make me stop caring about you.” He brushed some of her hair back then, tucking it behind her ear, his eyes soft now. “Trust me, no one is more surprised about this than I am. But I don’t care. I want to be with you. The pot just helped me say it.”

She sniffed a little. “Dammit Hardy, why can’t you let me wallow in self pity?”

“Because you don’t deserve it.” He wrapped his arms around her then, and she went into the hug, curling up against his chest as he held her tight. “We can take the emotion part of it slowly, if you want. I just want the chance to make you happy.”

Resting her head on his shoulder, Taylor closed her eyes. “It’s hard to debate with you.”

“Why’s that?”

“…’Cause you’re usually right.”

Frank huffed out a small laugh then, and she felt him press a kiss into her hair. “So is that a yes? To…this? To us?”

“I gotta admit, I kind of like the sound of an ‘us’. Like Ben and Leslie.”

“Bob and Linda?”

“Maybe even JD and Veronica.”

“That’s a terrible reference. I would never try to kill you or blow up our school.”

“Yeah, but the sex is great and you’re sexy as hell when you’re angry.” Reopening her eyes, she saw he was grinning and she couldn’t help but smile back. God, she would always melt for that smile.

Damn his pretty face.

“You’re hot when you’re angry too,” he said. “Don’t think I forgot about that guy who’s nose you broke with one punch last month.”

She smirked then, and he leaned in to kiss her. There was always a small spark in that action, something like a static shock, filling her up with that odd but pleasant tingling sensation. Like her entire body was about to burst into flames and she could burn but be happy, so long as Frank kept kissing her like this, touching her like this.

Maybe this was a good thing. So long as she kept Frank with her.


End file.
